page_title: Easton, Maryland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Easton, Maryland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Talbot County courthouse
context_page_description: Easton is an incorporated town and the county seat of Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,945 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population in 2019 of 16,671. The primary ZIP Code is 21601, and the secondary is 21606. The primary phone exchange is 822, the auxiliary exchanges are 820, 763, and 770, and the area code is 410.
context_section_description: Easton may be named because of its location east of Saint Michaels, however it is more likely that it was named after Easton in Somersetshire, England.
  Jesse Hughes, a footwear manufacturer and dealer, did business in Easton between 1861-1879. His business records, which are held by the University of Maryland Libraries, provide insight into 19th century town life.
  In 1916, the town erected the "Talbot Boys" statue in honor of Confederate soldiers from Talbot County. In 2015, and again August 2020, the Talbot County Council voted against removing the statue. In 2011, local officials added a statue of Frederick Douglass, the noted abolitionist, who was born a slave in 1818 at Wye House plantation near Easton.
  The town was home to four franchises of the Eastern Shore Baseball League — the Farmers, Browns, Cubs, and Yankees. The Third Haven Meeting House, the oldest Quaker meeting house and one of the oldest places of worship in Maryland, is in Easton. ArtHouse Live, a resident theatre company, is also based in Easton.
  In 2008, a lost painting of a Paris street scene by Édouard Cortès was discovered amongst donated items at a Goodwill Industries store in Easton. After an alert store manager noticed that it was a signed original, the painting was auctioned for $40,600 at Sotheby's.
  The town of Easton seems to have received its official beginning from an Act of the Assembly of the Province of Maryland dated November 4, 1710. The act was entitled, "An Act for the Building of a Court House for Talbot County, at Armstrong's Old Field near Pitt's Bridge". Pitt's Bridge crossed a stream forming the headwaters of the Tred Avon or Third Haven River. It was located at a point where North Washington Street crosses this stream, now enclosed in culverts, north of the Talbottown Shopping Center, and passes under the Electric Plant property. Prior to this date, the court had met at York, a small settlement north of Dover Bridge. The court decided that this location was not convenient to all sections of the county and, in order to change the location, the above act of the Assembly was passed. As a result of this act, two acres of land were purchased from Philemon Armstrong, at a cost of 5,000 pounds of tobacco. Upon this tract, the same plot upon which the present Talbot County Court House now stands, the court house, a brick building 20 x 30 feet, was erected at a cost of 115,000 pounds of tobacco. The courts of the county were held in this building from 1712 until 1794. A tavern to accommodate those who attended court was one of the first buildings erected; stores and dwellings followed. The village was then known as "Talbot Court House". These were not the first buildings in the area. The frame meeting house of the Society of Friends was built between 1682 and 1684. The Wye plantation was settled in the 1650s by Welsh Puritan and wealthy planter Edward Lloyd and is owned and occupied by the 11th generation of that family.
  In 2018, Easton was named one of America's top 5 coolest towns to buy a vacation home by Forbes.
caption: Courthouse in Downtown Easton
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